


tired heart, exhausted mind

by breeisonfire



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012)
Genre: B Team fic, Brotherly Bonding, and i am bitter, donnie appreciation fic, donnie doesn't get the credit he deserves, especially not in season four
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-28
Updated: 2016-03-28
Packaged: 2018-05-29 17:40:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6385942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/breeisonfire/pseuds/breeisonfire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Try harder, Leo had said.</p><p>Donnie's tired of trying.</p>
            </blockquote>





	tired heart, exhausted mind

**Author's Note:**

> Yo, first tmnt fic, wassup.
> 
> Donnie really is not getting the appreciation he deserves for all the hard work he does, and season four seems to be somewhat ignoring him. So, ta-da! This is right after 'The Fourfold Trap.' Leo never apologized. I am bitter.

“ _Try harder!”_

Leo’s voice is still echoing in Donnie’s head, long after they’ve returned home after escaping the traps Karai led them into. He should be resting; his head aches and his body is sore, but he can’t get Leo’s voice out of his head and he’s furious.

 _Try harder_. Like Donnie wasn’t already trying. Like he didn’t already contribute so much to the team. Like he didn’t spend _weeks_ getting no sleep and ingesting more coffee than is recommended to improve their lives. He builds things, things they can use in the field, things that make it _safer_ for all four of them in the field and have assisted them more times than he can count.

And Leo still tells him to try harder.

Donnie’s _tired_ of trying. It’s always on him to figure out the answer. He’s the one who had to figure out the formula to retromutagen and he’s still the only one who can make it. He’s the one who created the Turtle Mech, and even after Mikey’s concoction messed with his head, he’s _still_ the one who had to defeat the Creep.

(Granted, that wasn’t entirely his brothers’ fault, but he’s bitter. Sue him.)

And after all his work, after weeks of experiments and disappointing results, Splinter just magically had the answer with the Healing Hands mantra. He’s had that hidden up his sleeve, for who knows how long, despite every time Donnie and his brothers have been hurt, and maybe there was something Donnie was missing, some sort of requirement that had to be fulfilled before you could use it, but it would have been nice to know about. They could have worked towards it.

Leo can do it now. Which, of course, negates all of Donnie’s medical research and what he’s taught himself. And maybe he’d be grateful, except that Leo seems to think Donnie doesn’t do enough for the team.

He’s been studying the brain worm for so long he doesn’t immediately realize that his eyes have slipped closed until his head falls off his arm and nearly slams into his desk. He starts and sits back up, reaching for his coffee, but a hand grabs his wrist before he can get it.

Donnie looks up in surprise to see Mikey, his head tilted and a plate of food in his hand. Mikey’s usually the only reason Donnie remembers to eat when he gets like this. Mikey keeps track of _everyone’s_ eating habits, and will resort to underhanded tactics to get them to eat.

Usually, Donnie’s grateful to Mikey for the food, but today something ugly inside him twists and he pulls his arm out of Mikey’s grasp and turns back to his research.

“Dude,” Mikey says. “You’re gonna go cross-eyed if you keep staring at that thing like that.”

Donnie rolls his eyes. “What do you want, Mikey?”

It comes out harsher than he’d intended, but Mikey doesn’t even seem to notice, setting the plate down on the desk and pushing it towards Donnie before taking a seat. He does this from time to time, just sitting in the lab with Donnie while he’s working, usually reading a comic and humming.

This time, though, he’s quiet, even as Donnie gives in to his hunger and starts to eat. It’s good, something spicy and warm and undeniably made by Mikey, but Donnie can hardly taste it. He’s angry at Leo, but he’s angry at Mikey, too, despite him saving Donnie from getting zapped earlier, because Mikey didn’t defend him. _Mikey_ , who gets the same treatment from Leo and especially Raph (and, Donnie thinks guiltily, sometimes himself, too) Donnie’s getting, who gets told he messes up too much and gets picked on all the time for things he can’t help. Donnie usually thinks he and Mikey stick together on this, but he can’t help feeling betrayed this time.

“You know he doesn’t mean it, right?”

Donnie nearly jumps right out of his chair at the sound of Mikey’s voice. His little brother is leaning on the table, his chin in his hands, studying Donnie intently.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Donnie says, pushing the plate back at Mikey.

“Yeah, you do,” Mikey replies, ignoring the plate. “Leo. He didn’t mean it. He knows you’re working really hard. He’s just being a jerk.”

Donnie doesn’t respond, staring at the slide he’d been about to look at. Mikey seems to take this as an invitation to continue.

“Leo just thinks the whole Karai thing is his fault,” he says. “And he wanted to fix it. He’s never really thought straight about Karai, you know? Even before all of this.”

Donnie can’t help but snort. Mikey’s not wrong.

“But, D, we all know you work really hard,” Mikey says, and Donnie turns his head to glance at his serious face. “You’ve made really awesome things, like the Shellraiser, and the Stealth Bike! And Metalhead, when he doesn’t grab my face. And you’re the one who made it so we could mutate all those people back. And we all know that, even if Leo has his head up his shell.”

That startles a real laugh out of Donnie, and he rubs his face with his hand tiredly. Mikey’s smiling when he looks at him.

“Thanks, Mikey,” Donnie says, and he means it. Because Leo’s the leader, Raph’s the muscle, and Donnie’s the brains, but _Mikey’s_ the heart of the team. And maybe Donnie doesn’t get the credit for the work he does (he definitely does _not_ ), but Mikey doesn’t either, Dimension X stuff aside. And maybe they can take turns reminding each other they’re important to the team.

“Anytime, bro,” Mikey says. “You should get some sleep, I think Master Splinter was getting ready to come in here and kick you out of your lab.”

Donnie groans, but he _is_ exhausted. He doesn’t know how long it’s been exactly since the escape from the traps, but it’s been a while. So he takes one more look at his microscope and puts his samples away carefully before following Mikey out of the lab.

(In the morning, Leo will come up to him looking ashamed and apologize for his words, and Raph will ask him if he’s had any cool ideas for the Stealth Bike, and when Donnie looks at Mikey, he has a secret, satisfied smile on his face and Donnie figures he wasn’t the only one Mikey talked to the night before. And he’ll thank him later, but right now he’s got some ideas to talk about.)

**Author's Note:**

> [My tumblr!](http://drdone.tumblr.com)


End file.
